This invention is related to a thermal print head and a thermal printer.
A thermal print head is the main device of a thermal printer, which conducts printing on media such as thereto-sensitive paper. Patent Literature 1 discloses an example of a conventional thermal print head. For the thermal print head disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a resistor layer and an electrode layer are deposited on a substrate. By patterning the resistor layer and the electrode layer, several heating elements are arranged along the main scanning direction of the resistor layer. Moreover, an insulating protection layer covers the resistor layer and the electrode layer. The protection layer prevents damage to the electrode layer or the resistor layer that can be caused by friction between the thermo-sensitive paper and the electrode layer or the resistor layer.
An improper engagement between the thermal print head and thermo-sensitive paper degrades the printing quality. For example, light print may occur if the pressing force between the thermal print head and the thermo-sensitive paper is insufficient. In addition, the installation precision of the thermal print head onto a thermal printer is another factor affecting print quality.